I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid couplings and, more particularly, to a quick connect fluid coupling.
II. Description of the Prior Art
There are many previously known quick connect fluid couplings which typically comprise a male part and a female part. The male part is manually insertable into the female part in order to establish the fluid connection between the male and female parts. Upon insertion, a locking mechanism in the female part and/or male part locks the coupling parts together while a seal assembly simultaneously fluidly seals the coupling parts together.
A number of the previously known quick connect fluid couplings also include a one way shut off valve in the female part of the coupling. Such couplings retain fluid in the fluid system associated with the female part of the coupling until the female and male parts are connected together. Upon connection, the valve is moved to its open position and enables fluid flow through the fluid system. Such fluid couplings are used, for example, in automotive air conditioning systems where the portion of the fluid system associated with the female part of the coupling is charged or pressurized with freon.
These previously known quick connect fluid couplings with shut off valves all suffer from a number of disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that the fluid seal arrangement used to fluidly seal the shut off valve to the female part when the valve is in its closed position is separate from the fluid seal arrangement used to fluidly seal the male and female parts together upon connection. This increases both the cost and complexity of the fluid coupling.
A still further disadvantage of the previously known quick connect fluid couplings with shut off valves is that these couplings typically used a compression spring to urge the shut off valve against a resilient seal in order to fluidly seal the shut off valve to the female coupling part. Consequently, the force of the spring controls the integrity of the fluid seal. This previously known arrangement, however, oftentimes failed to achieve an effective fluid seal so that leakage from the fluid system resulted. This is particularly true where the spring is defective or weakened after protracted use or non-use from a defective design.